August 4, 1993: Robin Ventura Vs. Nolan Ryan

It was the face-pounding beatdown heard ’round the baseball world, echoing through Texas and forever cemented in Lone Star sports legend, and it involved the greatest pitcher in baseball history.

On August 4, 1993 the Texas Rangers met the Chicago White Sox at Arlington Stadium. In the top of the third inning, 26-year-old Robin Ventura gets plunked by Ryan in the ribs. You audibly hear the slap of the ball to flesh. He hesitates for split-second, throws down his bat, takes off his batting helmet, and charges straight at the 46-year-old Nolan Ryan standing on the pitching mound.

Ryan immediately grabs the young Ventura, dishing out tough love in the form of a head lock and fist gumbo. The Arlington crowd is an orgy of boos and whistles. People are eating it up, as our elder statesman dishes out a six or so punches to Ventura’s then-cocky cranium.

The sixth one seems to be the most clear.

Both benches are cleared. Men with ridiculous mustaches and mullet combos fight in slow motion. Ryan and Ventura seethed at each from across the melee, gaining their composure. Something angers Ryan and the brawl begins anew. The dog pile stews a bit longer, and then both teams begin filtering back into the dugouts to continue the game. Compared to a hockey fight, it’s a playground shoving match.

Ryan was just months from retirement. He didn’t care. His place in baseball history was long secured.

“I’m getting too old for this,” you can imagine him telling catcher Ivan Rodriguez with that commercial-friendly Texas twang in between innings, wiping his brow of sweat.

“You right man,” Rodriguez would reply, pulling his face mask back down.

Anyone who grew up in Texas in the 80s and 90s has a Nolan Ryan tale. Maybe you tried to imitate his signature pitching style in the backyard until you were sore. Maybe you grew up with a signed ball on a mantle in your childhood bedroom, those amazing swoops blazing, next to your binder of prized baseball cards. My favorite Ryan memory was seeing him pitch during a preseason Silver Boot Series game against the Astros at the Dome, his first return to the Eighth Wonder since he left us for Rangers. I wish I could say I didn’t eat more Mother’s Cookies than I should have because of the man.

It was this fight that would make him even cooler in many of our eyes, grizzled even. People all tell the story differently. This was before social media, YouTube, and the like. Now the video would have been viral in seconds. You only saw the clip here and there on baseball highlight reels. So when you relayed it to friends who hadn’t seen it, sometimes Ryan literally ripped Ventura’s ears off in the fight. Sometimes Ventura wept like a baby and you could see that he wet his pants afterward.

For some reason many people get this incident mixed in with the September 1990 game where the Kansas City Royals’ Bo Jackson smashed a line drive into Ryan’s lip, creating a bloody jersey and face for Ryan. For his part, Ryan still threw the nimble Jackson out at first base. He continued to play covered in blood, which was frickin‘ awesome.

Jackson was also a part of that brawl in Arlington three years later, but as a supporting player.

Last year Ryan and Ventura met on more friendly terms before a White Sox/Rangers game at the Rangers Ballpark and shook hands after years of not speaking on the matter. Ventura is now the Sox manager, and Ryan is the owner and CEO of the Rangers.

“It’s something that happened in the heat of the moment. I’m surprised that a mere baseball fight, and I’d had a few others over the years, could have this kind of life,” Ryan told USA Today around the time of the 2012 meeting.

Ventura told the sports blog that it was more of an outgrowth of what kind of turmoil the two teams were embroiled in at the time. He wasn’t going after Ryan as a person.